Ramot (Template:Lang-he-n, lit. Heights), also known as Ramot Alon (Hebrew: רמות אלון, lit. Alon Heights), is a large housing development in northwestern Jerusalem.[1] Because part of Ramot lies north of the Green Line,[2][3] the international community considers Ramot a settlement.[4][5][6] However, Israel disputes this and the U.S. government has traditionally refrained from calling Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem "settlements."[7] Ramot is one the Jerusalem ring neighborhoods.
History
In the Bible, during the story of the death of the prophet Samuel, it is written that as he died, all of Israel came to bury him in his home, in the Rama. Oral tradition indicates that place is the one of the highest peaks surrounding Jerusalem, some 885 meters above sea level.[8] Ramot is located on the hills south of that peak.[citation needed]
The word Ramot in Hebrew means "heights" or "rises" (a plural of the word Rama). When used in reference to geography, the word is usually translated as "plateaus". The name Alon refers to Yigal Alon, a former prime minister of Israel. While the full name is Ramot Alon, the inhabitants refer to the neighborhood simply as Ramot.[8]
Geography
Ramot is north and west of the center of Jerusalem. The neighborhood is built upon two elongated ridges about 100–200 meters above the surrounding landscape (heights of 693–876 meters above sea level). Between the ridges is the Golda Meir highway, leading to Tel Aviv. Travel time to the center of Jerusalem is about 15 minutes and Har Hotzvim industrial park is about 7 minutes .[10]
Demography
Ramot has a population of 50,000.[11] It is divided into six sections, from Ramot 1, the oldest section, to Ramot 6, the newest section. Ramot 5 is the commercial center. There are Crusader era remains in Ramot 2 and Ramot 6.[citation needed]
The population is ethnically and religiously diverse, and housing ranges from expensive, single-family homes to inexpensive, multi-level apartments. Ramot has a large Orthodox and Haredi population.
Archaeology
In May 2005, a salvage excavation conducted in the Ramot neighborhood on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority found a rock hewn burial cave surmounted by a massive rectangular building and a columbarium cave. Potsherds dating to the Ottoman period were discovered on the floor of the building. Fragments of jars and cooking pots dating to the Early Roman period were discovered in the columbarium, which is characteristic of the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods.[12]
^"Leor Tubul, 17 years old, and Ronan Karamani, 18, vanished at a busy intersection outside the Ramot neighborhood, a Jewish suburb built in an area that had been the West Bank before Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967." Slaying of 2 Jews Stirs Violence in JerusalemNew York Times August 7, 1990.
^MacAskill, Ewen (15 October 2010). "Israel provokes Palestinians and US by going ahead with new settlements". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 15 October 2010. The Israeli government regards both as part of Israel but the Palestinians, and almost all of the international community, see them as illegal, built on Palestinian land occupied by Israeli in 1967.
